Offaly selects trio for Dáil

On the fact of it, it might appear as if there was little drama in the Offaly general election with the constituency returning the three candidates who were tipped for election.

But the bare facts conceal a dramatic election that leaves plenty of talking points.

The election resulted in the creation of two first-time TDs, Tony McCormack (Fianna Fáil) and John Clendennen (Fine Gael), and a cliffhanger count where Sinn Féin's Aoife Masterson almost took a seat.

It was an historic election too in that it was the first time the county of Offaly comprised a full Dáil constituency on its own.

Independent Carol Nolan topped the poll with 22.15% of the vote, a remarkable achievement for a non-party candidate in a three-seater, and Fianna Fáil secured the expected seat, with Tullamore-based Tony McCormack achieving a significant personal success and ending a long wait for a town native to represent the area in the Dáil.

But Fianna Fáil's vote share, at 23.4%, was the lowest since the party was founded. In 2020, it secured 31.9% in the Laois/Offaly constituency, and even in the wipeout election of 2011, post Ireland's economic crash, the party secured 26.7% in Laois/Offaly.

Fine Gael's John Clendennen made it across the line too, and both he and Sinn Féin's Masterson showed the tension of the occasion at the count centre in Birr with just 116 votes dividing them.

For Fine Gael, it was target secured and a seat in Offaly lost in 2020 - but it was by the skin of their teeth. It was the transfers of Fianna Fáil's second candidate, Claire Murray, and former Fianna Fáil standard bearer Eddie Fitzpatrick, who ran as an independent, which propelled Clendennen ahead of Masterson.

Green Party Senator Pippa Hackett, an outgoing Cabinet Minister, has now decided to take a step back from formal, active politics after securing only 925 votes in the first count.

Attention now turns to both the formation of Government and the co-option arrangements to replace both McCormack and Clendennen on Offaly County Council.